The Dutch government is set to introduce further privatisation to its rail market, bringing in new charges and opening international routes to competition from 2025.
1. International privatisation
Following the latest round of negotiations between the National Railway Company of the Netherlands (NS) and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, NS will retain nearly all domestic rail services, as well as Brussels operations, but lose its exclusive rights to international routes to Berlin, Frankfurt, London, and Paris, report Volksrant and the NL Times.
Private operators are poised to take advantage of the shift, with Arriva and Qbuzz having already tendered for the Paris and Berlin routes.
2. Transporting “warm air”
One of the more noticeable aspects of the changes from a customer perspective will be costlier tickets for those choosing to travel at the most popular times of day.
In a push to balance passenger numbers over the day and reduce overcrowding during peak travel times, a rush-hour surcharge will be added to ticket pricing structures. NS has argued in favour of measures like this for years, to address concerns about congestion at busy periods and low demand during off-peak times.
Last month, NS CEO Wouter Koolmees told Volkskrant: “In the morning rush hour, the occupancy rate is much too high, sometimes over 100 percent,” Koolmees said in an interview with the Volkskrant in July. “Then all the seats are occupied, and people have to stand. It’s packed. But over the whole day, the occupancy is less than 30 percent. So we transport warm air for large parts of the day.”
It is not yet clear how these rush hour measures will be defined.
3. Increasing revenue
The rush hour surcharge comes as part of suite of measures to increase NS’s revenue. The operator has been running at a loss since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The new contract will come into effect from 2025 to 2033 and includes two other fiscal moves to benefit the operator’s bottom line. The first is the go-ahead for a 7 percent ticket price increase over and above annual inflation. The second, even more radical: instead of paying an annual 80-million-euro fee for the privilege of operating the 2-billion-euro turnover concecssion, NS will now receive an annual subsidy of 13 million euros.
Rival firms have railed against the decision and filed lawsuits saying the Dutch cabinet is in breach European Union competition rules. The European Commission has agreed with the complaints and started action accordingly.
